Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us . Greenberg's View 4. 925101wv,„,, ZOOZJJLA 5teveOgreenbere-art.com Editorial Denied By The U.N. I f you were hoping the arrival of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would mark a change in attitude toward Israel at the United Nations, a committee vote in mid-May should give you pause. The Committee on NGOs of the U.N. Economic and Social Council voted 8-7, with three abstentions, to deny consulta- tive status to the American branch of the Jewish National Fund. JNF is an officially recognized NGO, or nongovernmental organization, at the United Nations, but that gives the agency limited access. An upgrade to consultative status would have allowed JNF to testify at Economic and Social Council meetings. The council oversees 70 percent of the human and financial resources of the U.N. system, including programs that fall with- in JNF's area of expertise, such as water, forestation and sustainable development. No organization knows more about planting trees, maximizing water resourc- es and developing areas others see as wasteland than JNF, which bought and built much of the modern state of Israel. Countless other nations could benefit from that expertise. People around the world with no connection to Israel or the Jewish people are living better lives today because of JNF. But that U.N. committee couldn't see any value to including JNF in its discus- sions, even though some 2,800 other non- governmental organizations already have consultative status at the United Nations. The reason was simple: Israel. "This was about denying Israel's right to exist, and because JNF of America equals Israel, we took the hit:' said Joseph Hess, JNF's national vice president of govern- ment relations. "Because JNF is inextri- cably linked to the land of Israel — the coins we collected purchased it, and ever since our work has developed it — they cannot separate us from their desire to delegitimize the state of Israel!' Israel is a member of the committee that voted, but it wasn't enough. Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom (despite the rising anti-Israel sentiment being expressed in Britain), Colombia, Romania, Peru and Turkey (perhaps Israel's one true friend in the Muslim world) supported JNF. Negative votes came from Egypt (as the cold peace continues), Qatar, Burundi, Guinea, Russia, Cuba, China and Sudan. It speaks well of Israel to have enemies like those. It's disappointing, if not surprising, that America's key Muslim ally in the war on terrorism, Pakistan, abstained on the vote. The same is true for India, which has a growing relationship with Israel. Angola also abstained; Dominica missed the vote. The Syrians and Palestinians led the opposition to JNF's request. The substance of their argument was that the agency failed to prove it was not supporting Israeli activities in the "Palestinian territories." "The eight countries who voted against us weren't voting against the significance of our work',' said Rabbi Eric Lankin, the chief of institutional advancement and education at JNF. "This was a geopolitical fight which has nothing to do with who JNF is and what we do. We just wanted the opportunity to present our expertise." JNF must wait three years to reapply, which means the United Nations must wait at least three years to enjoy the wealth of JNF's knowledge. And that just shows again that the United Nations as a whole is far more interested in attack- ing Israel — a country created through a U.N. resolution passed nearly 60 years ago — than doing anything to make the world a better place. came to you at birth to carry something on. What exactly that is supposed to be may not be fully understood in a life- time. But we look to the past to make sense of our lives and to our children to give them meaning. At my bar mitzvah, my clearest memory is of my grandmother hugging me and crying after the service. I never saw her cry before and it startled me. My grandfather had then been gone a little more than 13 years. At my age it seemed like the distant past. Now, 13 years is almost no time at all. A loss would still be painfully fresh. And I car- ried his name. Our first granddaughter, Caryn, is named for our daughter, Courtney, who was in turn named for that grandmother. Their name is Chaya. We are delighted that Caryn recognizes the photograph of Courtney that we keep in the living room and identifies it by name. Of course, she has no idea beyond that. Both Sherry and I claim to see elements of Courtney's feisty but loving personality in her. Or maybe it's what the psychologists like to call projection. But I know the day will come when she will look at the picture and ask the same questions I once asked. There will be so much I'll want to tell her. But I know exactly how I'll begin. "That is your Aunt Courtney:' I will say. "She was smart and funny and full of the devil. And, my God, how she would have loved you." Send letters of no more than 150 words to: letters@thejewishnews.com . Reality Check What's In A Name? A mong the most meaningful tra- ditions in Judaism is the prac- tice of naming children after a relative who no longer is living. It not only perpetuates a name but also brings a deeper connection to the arrival of the newborn. So much more than merely plucking a name at random from some baby book. My Hebrew name is Nahum Yehuda. I learned recently that it was the same name borne by my great-great-grandfa- ther. I know almost nothing else about the man. He was probably born around 1835, probably died around 1885 and probably lived in Minsk. But I found it consoling to trace my name back that far. His name was passed on to my own grandfather and then to me. Naturally, I was always curious about the grandfather I never knew but whose name I carried, both in English and in Hebrew. He died seven months before I was born. 22 June 14 2007 When I asked about him as a child, my mother would begin by telling me, "How he would have loved you." Over the years, other bits and pieces came together: His escape from serving in the Czar's army. His career as a chazzan (cantor). The owner of successful cloth- ing and shoe stores in Detroit. The big house on Vinewood Ave. that those stores bought. The illness and Great Depression when it all was lost. His love of learning and music and natty clothes. My Uncle Seymour has a marvelous old poster that shows great-great-grandpa in top hat and tallit, billed as the "noted tenor" and chazzan for the High Holidays at one of the little shuls off Dexter some time in the 1930s. Maybe it's another birthday coming around that raises these thoughts. But how many times have you wondered about the person for whom you were named? It isn't a burden exactly, but it is clearly a responsibility — a charge that George Cantor's e-mail address is gcantor614@aol.com.